Forget Me Not
by Vylette Skye
Summary: Arianna Dumbledore never thought that she would find love. Especially not in her older brother's best friend, Gellert Grindelwald.
1. Prologue: The Listener

_Ariana rarely talked; but that didn't mean that she didn't listen. Ariana always listened. She was such a good listener that she could tell which person was walking up the stairs; Kendra, her mother, Albus, her brother, Aberforth, her other brother, or Gellert, neighbor of the Dumbledore's._

_Ariana adored Gellert, though no one noticed. But one day, as Ariana was sitting on the window sill, looking out into the yard at Albus and Gellert playing Quidditch, Gellert caught her eye. _

_The two stared at each other for what seemed like eternity, and then a bludger flew through the air and hit Gellert in the chest. He was knocked off his broom and Albus laughed. Gellert joined in but he was still staring at Ariana. _

_The next day, Ariana, being such a good listener as she was, overheard Gellert and Albus talking in the next room._

_"What happened to your sister?" asked Gellert._

_Albus sighed and said softly, "I don't like to talk about it. None of us do."_

_"Oh, come on. We are best friends. We have to tell each other everything. I told you about my parents."_

_"Oh, all right," said Albus. "When Ariana was six, she was attacked by muggles. They scared her so much that…well… they just scared the magic out of her. She can't control it. She is very sweet though. But she doesn't talk much. And then, my father went after the muggles and got sent to Azkaban."_

_"Well," said Gellert after an uncomfortable silence, "Once we rise to rule the world we will find a cure for Ariana."_

_"Yeah…" sighed Albus._

_Ariana smiled and walked away._


	2. Auraless

Gellert Grindelwald walked right up to the Dumbledore's house and opened the door. Most people would be scared to even stand in a mile radius of the house, let alone open the door without knocking. To the Dumbledores, it didn't matter that Gellert did so; he was practically family. Well, to Albus and Kendra anyways. Aberforth hated him because he took Albus away from the family, filling his head with ideas for "the Greater Good."

Ariana did not think of Gellert as family, nor did she hate him. She just found him interesting. Ever since the accident where Ariana's magic had gone out of control, she could see people's auras and she was very good at reading emotions and feelings. But so far, with Gellert, nothing.

He had no aura. Sometimes, though, he had a little flicker of black, the color of death, but otherwise he was aura-less. And Ariana didn't like it. She didn't know if she could trust him. She certainly knew she could trust her own family, but Gellert…

Ariana was standing in the hallway when Gellert had opened the door. They had never been alone together before.

"Is Albus here?" asked Gellert, slowly as if speaking to a five year old, when Ariana was fourteen.

Ariana decided that she'd show him that she could talk, even if she did so rarely.

"No, neither Aberforth nor my mother," she said in perfect English and watched Gellert's face closely. Still, no emotion.

"You don't have an aura, you know," she said, unable to stop herself. Why was he such a mystery?

"Neither do you," he said, looking upon her with different eyes.

"I did…once…before," she murmured. Then, realizing she had said too much, she ran up the stairs, leaving Gellert alone, trying to make some sense of Ariana Dumbledore.

"Wait!" called Gellert. Arianna stopped and turned around. She was on the top step. "What color was it?" She didn't speak. "Your aura? When you had one?"

"I don't know," said Arianna, sadly. "I couldn't see them then. You are also emotionless, you know."

"You're not."

"No," agreed Arianna. "I'm not." Then, she asked shyly, "What is Durmstrang like?"

"I was expelled this past year. I won't just be here in the summer now. I'm staying."

"Are you?" asked Arianna. He nodded. "Aberforth won't like that."

"And why not?" asked Gellert, eyeing the fourteen year old girl. She was three years younger than him. She had white blond hair with dark blue eyes. His golden hair was at least three shades darker than hers. A smile played on his face while she started to answer him.

"You're poisoning his mind," stated Arianna, bluntly.

"With what, Arianna? We are doing this for the greater good. But you don't understand. You should though," he said.

Arianna walked down from the stairs and led Gellert outside. She led him to a spot where three white flowers were planted in the grass. "What is this, Arianna?"

"Stop saying my name, Gellert," she said coldly. "I don't like it." Gellert did not apologize. "I can remember it well, you know. There were three of them. They saw me opening and closing the flower. They asked me how I did it and when I didn't answer, one of them grabbed a rock." She looked up at Gellert.

"Go on."

"I don't hate them. For what they did to me. And even though it was far from here – where it happened, I planted these flowers for them. They don't remember who they are and what they've done now. My father made sure of that."

"I – why are you telling me this?" asked Gellert. The fourteen year old girl dropped to her knees and looked up at Gellert, her eyes pleading.

"Can I trust you?" Gellert looked down at his best friend's sister. Suddenly, while looking at those dark blue eyes, he wanted her to trust him very much. But he knew that sometime, he would probably betray her, so he decided to answer her truthfully. He knelt down to the ground also and took her small, slender hands in his and looked in those dark blue eyes.

"I – I don't know." Her face fell and Gellert lifted her chin. "But I do know something. I want you to be able to trust me. Yes, I want you to."


	3. The Fourth Flower

**I'm sorry that it is so short. Chapters will be getting longer, I promise. I am also sorry that I kept spelling Ariana with two n's. I will only spell it with one for now on. I know that in the books, Gellert only comes once he has been expelled. In this fanfic, i made him come every summer, but now he will be there the whole year, because he has been expelled.**

The door slammed open and Gellert and Ariana watched as the whole house shook. Aberforth had come home and Bathilda Bagshot had told him the news about Gellert.

"Ariana?" called Aberforth. Gellert nodded to Ariana and disappeared over the bushes, into his yard. Ariana looked back down at the flowers, and that was how she was when Aberforth found her. "Come inside, Ariana!" he told her. She shook her head and gazed back at the flowers. Then, Aberforth asked her, "Where's mother?"

Ariana looked up at her brother and wrapped her arms around him. "She wouldn't let me come outside," sobbed Ariana. Aberforth nodded, dreading what was to come. "She's upstairs," said Ariana. "In her room." Aberforth nodded and walked away, expecting his sister to follow.

"At least I'll be with dad," she moaned and Aberforth stopped and Ariana realized he didn't know. "Aberforth," she walked towards him. "She's dead." Aberforth grabbed his sister's arm and rushed inside and up the stairs. Sure enough, his mother was lying on her bed. He checked her pulse. There was none. She was dead.

Aberforth sat down on the bed and took his sister's hands in his. "What happened?"

"I walked here, wanting to go outside. To give the flowers water, because it hasn't rained in a while. And she told me no. She said no one could see me; that I'd be taken away if they did! She said I could never go outside, and I was lucky that I wasn't confined to the basement. And I got mad! I lost control. I – it wasn't my fault!"

Aberforth soothed his sister and embraced her as she cried. He wasn't crying, though. He was thinking. Thinking about how Albus would become their guardian and how miserable he'd be. And then, someone walked inside, and they both knew it was Albus. And then, someone followed and they knew it was Gellert. Aberforth let go of Ariana and walked down the stairs.

He met Albus in the hallway in front of the door. "Kendra's dead," he said and both Albus and Gellert went white in the face.

"But how?" asked Albus, and Ariana chose that moment to walk down the stairs.

"She wouldn't let me go outside," said Ariana. "I couldn't control it." Albus walked to his sister and hugged her for the first time in many years. Ariana glanced at Gellert's confused face. _Later,_ she mouthed. He nodded slightly. Aberforth and Albus didn't notice. They were hugging their sister.

"I'll come back later," said Gellert. Albus nodded and both Aberforth and Ariana knew that he would go upstairs soon to write to Gellert.

Sure enough, Albus said, "I'm going to go upstairs. Lots to think about."

"Can I go upstairs, Ariana? I am exhausted," said Aberforth and Ariana nodded. The second both her brothers disappeared, she walked out the door and a second later, she rang the door to Gellert's house. He opened it.

"When did this happen?" he asked, letting her in.

"Before you came," said Ariana, telling him the story of her mother's death. "When you opened the door," she told him. "I was going to go outside and plant another flower."

"That's nice of you," said Gellert. And Ariana looked up.

"Not for her! I hated her! But I didn't want her to die. But, no, that flower that I was going to plant wouldn't have been for her. It would have been for me."

"What?"

"I can sometimes control it, my magic. And I when I do lose control, I can usually control it afterwards for a while. I was going to kill myself, Gellert. Plant my flower and kill myself. That way, when Aberforth or Albus found me, they would know that I did it myself because of the fourth flower. But you," she stopped and laughed. "You came in and I froze and you talked to me like I couldn't understand a word you were saying, and I wanted to show you that I am more than a five year old who can't control their magic. And then, I realized that if I had killed myself, Albus' aura would have became partially black. And yours – with those little specks of black; those little specks would become larger because of Albus' grief. So I didn't."

"You're wrong," said Gellert, shaking his head. "I wouldn't have been sad because Albus would be sad. I'd be sad because you were gone. I . . . I think . . . " he trailed off, not finishing his sentence. Ariana nodded and said that she should go. She slipped out the door and walked back to her own house. Once she was inside, an owl flew through the window and dropped a letter in her hands. She opened it, knowing that it was from Gellert.

_I think I love you._

Ariana smiled.


End file.
